Mark & Urby Friesen (International HS, Peru)

Ministry to the Ashaninica Tribe in Peru

Update: December 16th, 2024

Dear GCC Church family,
            Last week, Pastor David Shapiama and Edwin Callejas accompanied me to the town of Atalaya for a gospel preaching workshop with a focus on evangelizing the believers in their congregations. There were seven participants from the Tambo, Urababma and Ucayali rivers for our morning and afternoon workshops. We worked through the gospel message in Deuteronomy 19 the cities of refuge, Luke 10 the Good Samaritan and Malachi 3 bring in the whole tithe. In the evenings, while David had a time of pastoral care with the indigenous pastors, Edwin and I worked through John 2, the wedding in Cana with 18 from the church in Atalaya. Wednesday evening, while I continued with the John 2 passage, Edwin took 20 who came just for one evening, through the Good Samaritan passage. It was an amazing time to see their eyes opened to a deeper understanding of God's message for us and have an encounter with him in Scriptures.
            We always start by asking God to reveal himself and his message to us and several times we had to stop and pray again for understanding when our intellect failed us. As we prayed the thoughts came to our minds and we were able to moved on. It was also a great learning experience for us teachers. Requests for these workshops are increasing and we are continually better prepared to teach and work through passages together.      The pastors from the Urabamba river have already called me twice requesting a workshop for preachers from neighboring villages. The 27th of February through the 3rd of March we have a request from the Ticuna tribe in far north east Peru. We will meet them in the Northern city of Iquitos which is a one hour flight from here and an 8 hour boat ride for them.
            We appreciate your prayers concerning that ministry focus. It also requires preparation on my part. They are asking me to include examples in the manual that we use so I am in the process of doing that.
            Pray also for our family as Urby and I have tickets to fly to Lima on the 24th and spend Christmas and New Years with Tiffany, Michael and the boys. Peru is in a political leadership crisis with marches that have turned violent and could easily become quite violent on top of disrupting traffic and the flow of fuel and goods to points of sale.
            When we arrive in Lima the guest house where we will stay is one hour by taxi from the airport. Fortunately there was a noon flight. Urby will stay in Lima for the birth of Tiffany’s baby boy by C Section on the 18th of January. Several conditions are making that more complicated and expensive than normal so you can be in prayer for her and the baby. I have several people waiting in Lima for the  preaching workshop so I will come home about the 6th of January, and safely Lord willing.
Blessings this Christmas season and the New Year holidays.

Mark and Urby